Suchergebnisse

Context/Background: Sub-Saharan Africa is characterized by an extraordinary diversification of living arrangements. It is a debatable question whether these features are evolving alongside the deep economic and social changes observed in the past few decades. Despite numerous studies on family changes and their effects, very few analyses consider different ethnic and geographical contexts.Data Source and Methods: The paper observe the interaction between modernization and cultural heritage in shaping living arrangements in 10 sub-Saharan countries and in 38 ethnic groups. A temporal perspective has been adopted, comparing two successive DHS carried out between 1990 and 2013. Stratifying by ethnic groups and rural/urban contexts, factor analysis and hierarchical classification analysis investigate how living arrangements combine with fertility levels and socio-economic characteristics.Findings: The results support the large heterogeneity of living arrangements and the increase of new family forms, rather than the existence of a convergence process on a single nuclear family pattern. Ethnic background is confirmed a valid interpretative key, necessary to understand the cultural substrate in which the modernization factors brought by globalization act.Conclusion: National governments should develop and implement family policies that can raise the wellbeing of the emerging family models. In particular, family policies should support households in providing care and economic, material, psychological and affective support for their members.

AbstractAs a result of the growing presence of foreign immigrants settling in Italy, recent years have seen a significant increase in the number of mixed unions. However, little research has been carried out on the subject in this country, in part due to insufficient availability of suitable data. The aim of this study is to investigate the "market" of formal and informal mixed unions and to understand whether ethnic origin contributes a new element to the marriage/union market, and to verify the applicability of the "exchange theory" to the Italian context. We analyzed a particular segment of the marriage market ‐ mixed parental couples included in the 2005 Sample Surveys of Births. The results showed a clear gender divide in the ethnic preferences of Italian spouses, a high rate of previous marital experience for both Italian and foreign people in mixed pairings, and a high frequency of unmarried and casual mixed relationships. Compared with endogamous couples, the foreign male or female spouse/partner in mixed couples is young and more educated relative to the Italian partner, but is less present in the work market and, when employed, often occupies a less well‐qualified position. The "informal union market" works in very similar ways to the "marriage market"; the slight attenuation of relationships observed in the former being attributable to the lesser degree of security guaranteed by an unofficial union. Therefore, the mechanism of mate selection implies that foreigners' appreciated qualities such as youth and high education may be offered in exchange for economic security, upward socio‐economic mobility and access to the social network of the native partner: this is a variant of the exchange theory that was found to apply well to transnational marriages/unions in Italy.

The integration of immigrants into settlement areas is a complex phenomenon that persists throughout the life history of immigrants. The analysis of life histories should take into account the time dimensions of the different individual paths that can be traced back by retrospective surveys. The aim of our research is to identify different steps, transitions, timings and determinants that characterise the insertion process of a sample of Albanian and Moroccan immigrants in two cities in Italy, Bari and Rome. The methodology employed is the Event History Analysis (EHA), rarely applied to international migration. The work aims at singling out the main events, as well as their succession and their determinants, of the settlement course of the immigrants. Data show that the main events characterising the migratory life cycle are the attainment of a paid job and obtaining a stable accommodation. Finding a regular (legal) job and stable relationship are less widespread as these are typically sought later on. Data also show that the stabilization process goes through a phase characterized by precarious solutions. Finally, with regard to the insertion process, Moroccan immigrants appear to face the most problems.